


if you asked me to

by QuietLittleVoices



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: College era, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, oh my god they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 17:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21324040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietLittleVoices/pseuds/QuietLittleVoices
Summary: Jack is bad at being a person. Sammy is bad at leaving well enough alone.
Relationships: Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Comments: 12
Kudos: 92





	if you asked me to

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I haven't written something in over a month so here's this?? Hopefully I'll work on something more substantial soon. Here, have some fluff.

Sammy met Ethan and Daniel on move-in day. The two of them had their families helping them move furniture and items into the small apartment, and they ended up helping Sammy with his things since he was all alone. Ethan’s mom smiled at Sammy and asked where his family was and Sammy just said they were busy. It was true, probably. They were usually busy, but Sammy hadn’t spoken to his parents in three months. 

Sammy knew that they had a fourth roommate, but he wasn’t there on move-in day, and his stuff didn’t show up until two days later, seemingly out of nowhere. Sammy had gone to meet with a financial advisor and when he came back there were things on the other side of his room. Ethan and Daniel had met him, apparently, a journalism major named Jack. Sammy tried to think of any Jack’s he’d seen in class last year and couldn’t remember. That didn’t mean Sammy didn’t know him already, he knew, but it wasn’t a huge program. 

It was another three days for Sammy to actually see Jack, even though they shared a room. Sammy got up in the middle of the night and walked out to the kitchen to find a guy he didn’t know rooting through the fridge. “Uh -”

The guy stood up fast, cursing when he nearly bashed his head against the top of the fridge. When he was standing, Sammy realized that he was… tall. Taller than Sammy, who was used to being the tallest person in a given room. “Hi,” he replied, sounding just as off-put as Sammy even though he wasn’t the one who just found a stranger in his kitchen past midnight. He stuck his hand out towards Sammy, the one that wasn’t clutching the extra-pulp orange juice so hard that Sammy was worried it was going to explode. “I’m Jack, and you must be -”

“Sammy, yeah.” Sammy shook his hand. “Did you just move in?” He knew the answer - Jack’s stuff was all over his side of the room in hopefully-organized chaos - but it was the only thing he could think of to ask in his sleep-addled state.

“Uh - no, no I moved in last week. My sister goes to school here? So I was at her apartment but she, uh, kicked me out,” Jack admitted sheepishly. He wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I got sexiled by my own sister and then realized I couldn’t remember when I last had fruit.” He gestured with the orange juice. 

“Oh, well, then I’ll leave you to it,” Sammy muttered. “I’ll see you around, yeah?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, for sure.”

Sammy exited awkwardly to the bathroom and when he got back to his room, there was a lump curled up in Jack’s bed. 

Jack was actually around a lot, after that. They ended up having a lot of classes together and suddenly Jack was around  _ all the time _ . If they weren’t studying together then they were spending all their free time together - Sammy wondered vaguely where Jack’s sister was in all of this, but Jack mentioned her in passing enough that Sammy knew she just had a much more interesting life than either of them. Sammy also realized pretty quickly that the risk of scurvy was the least of Jack’s problems - forgetting to eat in general seemed to be a thing that Jack did a bit too often.

“When is the last time you had breakfast?” Sammy asked and Jack shrugged, looking away as he pulled his notebook out of his bag. Sammy sighed and dug out a protein bar, putting it on top of Jack’s stuff. 

“I’m fine,” Jack said reassuringly. “I’m just not hungry in the morning.”

Sammy gave him an unconvinced look, because he knew that Jack got up at 6 to go for a run and it was almost 9 now. “You don’t have to eat it now, just keep it.”

Jack nodded, avoiding Sammy’s eyes, and put the bar in his bag. But Sammy saw him take it out and nibble on it during class, which he counted as a win. So Sammy kept carrying snacks, just in case. 

Jack spent a lot of time laying in bed with his laptop on his stomach, which was actually so ripped Sammy wondered if it was legal. And Sammy only knew that because Jack seemed to be slightly allergic to wearing a shirt when they were alone. It wasn’t good for his blood pressure.

“What’re you watching today?” Sammy asked as he walked in after a shower, shoving down any thoughts he might be having.

“X-Files,” Jack answered, eyes barely flickering to Sammy. “I - uh. I really like Scully?”

Sammy wouldn’t call himself the most observant person on earth. He’d known Jack for over a month and there’d never been a single moment when he’d actually, really, truly thought that Jack wasn’t completely straight. Jack had never talked about a girlfriend or girls or dating, but there’d been no indication. Until Sammy realized instantly that he was lying. And then Sammy realized he was staring at Jack silently while Jack avoided eye contact.

“Me too,” Sammy replied awkwardly, knowing that he sounded just as unconvincing, and that made Jack look at him, considering.

“You’ve seen the X-Files?” Jack asked instead of whatever it was he was thinking, and Sammy just shrugged. 

“I mean, a few episodes. Here and there.”

Jack sat up and turned so that his back was to the wall and there was room beside him, and he patted the empty space. “I need to educate you, then, c’mon. We’re watching Humbug, it’s a good one.”

Sammy eyed the space, considering. Jack was shirtless, and Sammy was almost certain now that he was - well that they both were - but he couldn’t just say no, so he climbed onto Jack’s bed and settled in next to him, their shoulders barely touching as Jack restarted the episode he was on. 

“Sorry,” Jack muttered when camera showed the carnie’s disgusted face after Mulder said ‘ _ Many men do as well _ ’, and Sammy looked over to see Jack’s face scrunched up. “This show never really did well in the...”

“Diversity stuff?” Sammy asked, and if he didn’t know before then he knew now from the tense way that Jack nodded. 

It became a thing, watching the X-Files on Jack’s laptop, sitting next to each other on Jack’s bed. They were both too tall for it to be comfortable but neither of them suggested anything else, opting always to sit with their shoulders barely touching and the laptop resting on both of their legs. 

It took a bit longer for Sammy to realize that Jack sometimes just didn’t go to sleep, or forgot to. He thought that Jack just went to sleep after him, woke up early for his runs, but then he saw the bags under Jack’s eyes when they didn’t even have a major assignment or exam coming up.

“Are you okay?” Sammy asked quietly. He didn’t have time to think before he was reaching out towards Jack, but his fingers had only just brushed the skin on the inside of his wrist before Sammy snatched his hand away like he was on fire. They’d gotten closer with their nights in together but Sammy still knew where the line was - they could have their sides touching when it was necessary but he couldn’t reach out to touch, not really. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jack answered, walking past Sammy into their room and grabbing his laptop. “Do you wanna -”

Sammy closed the door but didn’t move. “No, I mean - are you sleeping, Jack?”

Jack shrugged, not looking at Sammy. “I have insomnia. It’s easier to just - not, sometimes.”

“You know that sounds like bullshit, right?” Sammy asked bluntly, and regretted asking immediately when Jack’s spine went stiff.

“Did you want to watch the X-Files or not?” Jack wasn’t looking at Sammy, and his voice was just as tense as the rest of him. Sammy knew he shouldn’t have asked but - he couldn’t just leave it, not when Jack kept avoiding eye contact like he had something to be guilty about. 

“One episode,” Sammy compromised, because it would be easier than continuing to fight with Jack. “Then sleep.”

Jack didn’t answer, but he sits on the bed and let Sammy get up next to him. They don’t talk for the entire episode and he started to click on the next one when it was done but Sammy pulled the laptop out of his grasp, carefully powering it down before he put it under Jack’s nightstand. Jack started to protest, something about an essay that Sammy knew he didn’t have, so Sammy just grabbed his shoulders and pulled until he was laying on his side facing Sammy. He pulled the blanket up - over both of them without thinking. “Sleep,” he reminded Jack, and Jack’s jaw snapped shut. 

“Okay,” he agreed softly, a note of  _ something _ in his voice that Sammy couldn’t figure out. 

There wasn’t enough room on Jack’s extra long twin for two men, both over six feet tall, especially when one was a broad-shouldered rugby player. But Sammy made no move to get up, and Jack didn’t seem like he was going to say anything, so Sammy didn’t move. 

Not every night, but most nights Sammy found himself in Jack’s bed. There wasn’t enough room for the two of them but Jack never pushed him out, never said anything. And they didn’t talk about in the morning, when Sammy woke up on his back with Jack laying on his chest, nearly suffocating him. When their legs were tangled together or they were clinging to each other, it was just so they didn’t fall off. 

Sammy didn’t care whose idea it was, if it was Ethan or Daniel - he wasn’t even sure he could actually tell them apart - but someone had the bright idea to throw a Christmas party in their apartment. It was off-campus so there was less chance that they would get in trouble for having alcohol in the room or being too loud as long as they cleaned up before they left for winter break, but Sammy still felt like he wanted to crawl out of his skin. He’d been to a party earlier in the semester thrown by someone in the journalism department and he’d just stood in a corner nursing a beer for an hour before seeing Jack sitting on the couch with someone and laughing and then he’d left. 

Parties just… weren’t his scene. And he especially didn’t want one happening in his space. But he also didn’t wanna be the killjoy roommate so he agreed to it through gritted teeth and that was how he ended up three beers deep and searching for Jack in their too-small apartment. Jack has disappeared almost right away, even though Sammy knew that he was at least friendly with most of the people there - and there were a  _ lot _ of people, mostly people Sammy recognized but didn’t know. He didn’t even realize their apartment could  _ fit _ this many people. Even though he was taller than almost everyone there, Sammy still struggled to move through the crowd towards the bathroom. He knocked on the door and got a delayed response of ‘ _ in use _ ’ from someone who definitely wasn’t Jack, so he moved on to their bedroom. 

Ethan-or-Daniel had promised people wouldn’t use their bedrooms, so Sammy opened the door and, sure enough, found it empty except for Jack, who was sitting sideways on his bed with his laptop and a bottle of Fireball. 

Jack held the bottle out. “Want some?”

Sammy grabbed it wordlessly and took a swig straight from the bottle as he threw himself down next to Jack, their shoulders overlapping slight, and made a face as the cinnamon and whisky burned his throat. “Gross. How do you drink this shit?”

Jack shrugged and Sammy felt the motion at his back but it didn’t feel like Jack was shrugging him off so he didn’t move away, instead settling further into Jack’s side as he tried to focus on the show playing in front of him. He didn’t know what episode it was, couldn’t follow the plot as he watched Mulder run around a spooky house. 

“Spooky,” he said instead of whatever it was he was thinking, and Jack chuckled. Sammy could feel the reverberation in Jack’s chest against the side of his face and, oh, Sammy had his head resting there. He suddenly realized that he was much more drunk than he’d assumed, but that thought couldn’t make him move away, even though he knew that would be the smart choice.

Jack tried to get the whisky back without dislodging Sammy too much, and mostly failed but Sammy stubbornly refused to move. He took a much longer drink than Sammy had and paused the episode. 

“I’m gay,” Jack said with no preamble, no build up. And Sammy - Sammy knew. But the weight of hearing it still came as a shock to him and he found himself frozen for a second, still pressed close to Jack’s side but unable to say anything.

“Oh,” he said. And it was the wrong answer. He knew instantly that it was the wrong answer because he  _ knew _ that Jack knew about him, too, and he could feel Jack starting to shift away so he wound his arms around Jack’s middle to keep him there. “Me, too,” he added quietly, speaking mostly into Jack’s shoulder. Jack’s arm went up to hold him back, to pull Sammy further into his side, and then he hit play on the episode again. 

Even though they both knew - or at least, acknowledge that they both knew - the night of the Christmas party was just added to the list of things that they didn’t talk about. Like how Sammy’s bed hadn’t been slept in in a week and how Sammy made them both dinner most nights. And then it was Christmas break so Jack was gone back to California for three weeks and Sammy was stuck in fucking Orlando, because he couldn’t exactly go back home. 

He had the apartment to himself but he was barely there. He put more hours in at his shitty coffee shop job to pass the time and when he was in the apartment, he holed himself up in his room and waited until Jack texted him to call. The time difference made it difficult to keep up nightly calls, but they kept trying every night, even if Sammy sometimes fell asleep without hanging up. 

The break went by slowly but then he got the text from Jack that he had just landed and was calling a taxi, and it was like no time has passed at all. Jack grinned when Sammy opened the door for him, but his eyes looked darker than normal and there was a tension in his shoulders that Sammy recognized from earlier in the semester.

“Have you been sleeping?” Sammy asked, and immediately chastised himself when Jack’s shoulders went in on themselves a bit.

“It’s been tough,” Jack admitted sheepishly as he walked into the apartment and closed the door behind him. “I forgot how loud home is? A bunch of our family was there for like, a whole week, too. And it was just -” he made a vague gesture. “It was a lot.”

Sammy nodded. “I think we should take a nap.”

Jack looked at him questioningly but didn’t say anything as he followed Sammy to their room and shoved his suitcase into the space between his desk and bed and laid down. Sammy didn’t wait to climb in after him, laying on his side with his chest pressed against Jack’s arm. On the nights when Sammy had to help, this was usually how they fell asleep, but then Jack shifted and moved his arm so it went around Sammy’s shoulders and pulled him down on top of Jack’s chest. And that wasn’t normal. Even if they were wrapped up in each other when they woke up, they never started that way. 

“Is this okay?” Jack asked quietly, and Sammy just nodded. He didn’t trust himself to say anything. “I didn’t realize how used to you I’d gotten,” Jack admitted. “When it was too loud. You weren’t there to focus on, and when it was too quiet.. I didn’t realize.”

Sammy let out a breathe. “Jack,” he said. It was a warning but he wasn’t even sure what he was warning Jack from - saying too much, maybe, or not saying enough. Or maybe just not meaning it in the way that Sammy wanted him to.

“I know we have to live together for the rest of the semester, but I’d hate myself if there was a chance and I missed it,” Jack said, and when Sammy looked up Jack was looking back at him, eyes wide and terrified. 

“Jack,” Sammy repeated, meeting his eyes even though every part of him wanted to look away, to run away, to leave and not come back. “I’m gonna need you to be clear with me, because I don’t want to be reading into this wrong.”

Jack smiled tightly. “I really like you, and I’d really like to kiss you, and maybe eventually take you out on a date or maybe we’ve been having date nights for -”

Sammy leaned up and kissed him, taking hold of the only ounce of courage he could find to bridge the gap, and Jack immediately grabbed the back of his head to deepen the kiss. 

“So we’re good to skip the nap?” Jack asked lightly and Sammy frowned.

“We can continue this later,” he said decisively. “No one else is coming back until tomorrow. We have time.”

Jack looked disappointed, so Sammy leaned up to give him one last kiss. “Sleep now. I’ll even set an alarm for just an hour.”

“Okay,” Jack agreed. “Promise?”

Sammy nodded and laid his head back on Jack’s chest, letting Jack pull him in tighter than before. “Promise.”


End file.
